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Kutub al-Sittah
The Kutub al-Sittah (Arabic: الكتب السته‎) are six (originally five) books containing collections of hadith (sayings or acts of the prophet Muhammad) compiled by six Sunni Muslim scholars in the ninth century CE. They are sometimes referred to as''Al-Sihah al-Sittah'', which translates as "The Authentic Six". They were first formally grouped and defined by Ibn al-Qaisaraniin the 11th century, who added Sunan ibn Majah to the list.123 Since then, they have enjoyed near-universal acceptance as part of the official canon of Sunni Islam. Not all Sunni Muslim jurisprudence scholars agree on the addition of Ibn Majah. In particular, The Malikis and Ibn al-Athirconsider al-Mawatta' to be the sixth book.4 The reason for the addition of Ibn Majjah's Sunan is that it contains many Hadiths which do not figure in the other five, whereas all the Hadiths in the Muwatta' figure in the other Sahih books.4 Significanceedit Sunni Muslims view the six major hadith collections as their most important. They are (The order of authenticity varies between the Madhhabs):5 # Sahih Bukhari, collected by Imam Bukhari (d. 256 A.H., 870 C.E.), includes 7.275 ahadith # Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 261 A.H., 875 C.E.), includes 9,200 ahadith # Sunan Abu Dawood, collected by Abu Dawood (d. 275 A.H., 888 C.E.), includes 4,800 ahadith # Jami al-Tirmidhi, collected by al-Tirmidhi (d. 279 A.H, 892 C.E) # Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i (d. 303 A.H., 915 C.E.) # Either: ** Sunan ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah (d. 273 A.H., 887 C.E.) ** Muwatta Imam Malik, collected by Imam Malik (d. 179 A.H, 795 C.E) (According to Malikis and Zahiris of the Maghreband Al-Andalus region. Some of them hold it to be more authentic than Sahih Bukhari, while others place it either just after Sahih Muslim or al-Tirmidhi which they rank 3rd)6 The first two, commonly referred to as the Two Sahihs as an indication of their authenticity, contain approximately seven thousand ahadith altogether if repetitions are not counted, according to Ibn Hajar.7 Authorsedit According to the Cambridge History of Iran:8 "After this period commences the age of the authors of the six canonical collections of Sunni hadith, all of whom were Persian, except Imam Malik. The authors of the six collections are as follows: # Muhammad b. Isma'il al-Bukhari, the author of the Sahih Bukhari, which he composed over a period of sixteen years. Traditional sources quote Bukhari as saying that he did not record any hadith before performing ablution and praying. Bukhari died near Samarqand in 256/869-70. # Muslim b. Hajjaj al-Naishapuri, who died in Nishapur in 261/ 874-5 and whose Sahih Muslim is second in authenticity only to that of Bukhari. # Abu Dawood Sulaiman b. Ash'ath al-Sijistani, a Persian but of Arab descent, who died in 275/888-9. # Muhammad b. 'Isa al-Tirmidhi, the author of the well-known as Sunan al-Tirmidhi, who was a student of Bukhari and died in 279/892-3. # Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i, who was from Khurasan and died in 303/915-16. # Ibn Majah al-Qazwini, who died in 273/886-7." # Malik ibn Anas, who was from al-Madina where he died in 179 AH, 795 C.E